Qawem. https://muqawameh.wordpress.com
yasmeen mobayedTue, 26 Sep 2017 21:48:36 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://s2.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngQawem. https://muqawameh.wordpress.com
The struggle for Kobane: an example of selective solidarityhttps://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/the-struggle-for-kobane-an-example-of-selective-solidarity/
https://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/the-struggle-for-kobane-an-example-of-selective-solidarity/#respondTue, 03 Feb 2015 21:31:40 +0000http://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/the-struggle-for-kobane-an-example-of-selective-solidarity/Leila's blog: comrades from DAF join the struggle to defend Kobane The heroic resistance of the people of Kobane in fighting the onslaught of the Daesh (ISIS) fascists since mid-September, has led to a surge of international solidarity. A multitude of articles and statements have been written and protests have been…]]>

The heroic resistance of the people of Kobane in fighting the onslaught of the Daesh (ISIS) fascists since mid-September, has led to a surge of international solidarity. A multitude of articles and statements have been written and protests have been held in cities across the world. Kurds have flooded across the Turkish border to help their compatriots in the fight despite being brutally pushed back by Turkish forces, and others including Turkish comrades from DAF (Revolutionary Anarchist Action) have gone to the border to support in keeping it open to help the flood of refugees escaping to Turkey. There have been calls to arm Kurdish forces and calls to support DAF and send aid for refugees. Yet this solidarity with Syria’s Kurds has not been extended to non-Kurdish groups in the country that have been fighting, and dying, to…

]]>https://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/the-struggle-for-kobane-an-example-of-selective-solidarity/feed/0muqawameh‘A Letter in My Purse’: From Slain Poet Shaimaa El-Sabbaghhttps://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2015/01/25/a-letter-in-my-purse-from-slain-poet-shaimaa-el-sabbagh/
https://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2015/01/25/a-letter-in-my-purse-from-slain-poet-shaimaa-el-sabbagh/#respondSun, 25 Jan 2015 22:47:06 +0000http://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2015/01/25/a-letter-in-my-purse-from-slain-poet-shaimaa-el-sabbagh/Arabic Literature (in English): Shaimaa El-Sabbagh, the activist who was shot dead at a rally in Tahrir Square yesterday, was also a poet: A letter in my purse By Shaimaa El-Sabbagh, trans. Maged Zaher ————————– I am not sure Truly, she was nothing more than just a purse But when lost, there was…]]>

By Shaimaa El-Sabbagh, trans. Maged Zaher
————————–
I am not sure
Truly, she was nothing more than just a purse
But when lost, there was a problem
How to face the world without her
Especially
Because the streets remember us together
The shops know her more than me
Because she is the one who pays

]]>https://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2015/01/20/the-final-muslim-apology/feed/0Featured Image -- 401muqawamehHow to read the Syrian body: Lebanese racist ideologies and politics of differencehttps://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/how-to-read-the-syrian-body-lebanese-racist-ideologies-and-politics-of-difference/
https://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/how-to-read-the-syrian-body-lebanese-racist-ideologies-and-politics-of-difference/#respondFri, 09 Jan 2015 21:20:45 +0000http://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/how-to-read-the-syrian-body-lebanese-racist-ideologies-and-politics-of-difference/the interrogations of shamshouma: The story of the Syrian body as seen by Lebanese eyes is not a new one, it dates back to the time when Syrian workers migrated to Lebanon and became cheap labor, around the country’s largest institutional and urban development in the 1950s. And cheap labor, with time,…]]>

The story of the Syrian body as seen by Lebanese eyes is not a new one, it dates back to the time when Syrian workers migrated to Lebanon and became cheap labor, around the country’s largest institutional and urban development in the 1950s.And cheap labor, with time, cheapens the body itself and disciplines it. People then would speak of the Syrian worker as someone coming from dark places of Syria, unknown barbaric villages that manufacturepeople who were completely different from Lebanese. “Not all Syrians are backward”, the story went, “but these people who come to Lebanon and work in construction and other cheap form of labor, come “men wara al ba2ar”, they are dirty, ignorant and stupid”. Somehow labor exploitation disappears onto the Syrian worker’s body, thereby making it as ontologically different and alien, not just for middle and upper class Lebanese but for their fellow Lebanese…

]]>https://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/how-to-read-the-syrian-body-lebanese-racist-ideologies-and-politics-of-difference/feed/0muqawamehHOW TO: DONATE WINTER CLOTHINGhttps://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2015/01/08/how-to-donate-winter-clothing/
https://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2015/01/08/how-to-donate-winter-clothing/#respondThu, 08 Jan 2015 20:51:29 +0000http://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2015/01/08/how-to-donate-winter-clothing/Beirut Based: I may not be able to feel my fingers as I type, but I can’t really complain. The storm raging outside the window of my fancy, heated, top-floor office has already claimed two lives, including a 7-year-old Syrian boy. According to the UNHCR, there are more than 1.15 million registered Syrian refugees in…]]>

I may not be able to feel my fingers as I type, but I can’t really complain. The storm raging outside the window of my fancy, heated, top-floor office has already claimed two lives, including a 7-year-old Syrian boy.

According to the UNHCR, there are more than 1.15 million registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The Telegraph says that figure is equivalent to “Britain taking in 20 million asylum seekers in less than four years.” Many of those families live in tents not much sturdier than what you’d take camping at the height of summer, and people are literally freezing to death.

If you’d like to donate new or gently used jackets, sweaters, warm socks, winter shoes, hats, mittens or anything else that can fight the chill, there are several places accepting donations. It’s a good excuse to get rid of that sweater you haven’t worn since last year, and a little goes a long way.

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Monoskop recently posted a scan of El Lissitzky and Hans [Jean] Arp’s Kunstismen (1924), translated roughly as The “Isms” of Art. It is reproduced here in its entirety, page by page, or infull-text pdf format.

The original text runs in three parallel columns separated by thick dividers, very much in a constructivist style. Each column is in a different language: first German, then French, then English. Originally, I was planning on pasting the text from these in the body of the post. But I decided against it because, upon further examination, the translations are simply awful. German might have been a natural second language for Lissitzky; French and English were clearly not his strong points.

So instead, I’m posting an article that came out shortly afterward by the Hungarian art critic Ernő [sometimes Germanized as Ernst] Kállai, translated by John Bátki. Kállai’s work is not well known in the Anglophone world, though…

]]>https://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2014/10/27/hans-arp-and-el-lissitzky-the-isms-of-art-1924/feed/0Featured Image -- 320muqawamehRemembering Abu Furathttps://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2014/08/30/remembering-abu-furat/
https://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2014/08/30/remembering-abu-furat/#respondSat, 30 Aug 2014 02:47:35 +0000http://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2014/08/30/remembering-abu-furat/Darth Nader: Today, it is with great sadness that we learned about the death of Yusef al-Jader, whose nom-de-guerre was Abu Furat. Liwaa al-Tawhid announced that he was martyred today after leading a successful operation to liberate the Infantry School In Aleppo. Abu Furat was from Jarablus, a city on the border…]]>

Today, it is with great sadness that we learned about the death of Yusef al-Jader, whose nom-de-guerre was Abu Furat. Liwaa al-Tawhid announced that he was martyred today after leading a successful operation to liberate the Infantry School In Aleppo. Abu Furat was from Jarablus, a city on the border with Turkey in the suburbs of Aleppo. He was a great fighter, but also a man of great principle.

In this video, Abu Furat is speaking right after the liberation of the Infantry School. In a dialogue with the cameraman, he says the following:

Cameraman: Tell us what you are feeling now Abu Furat.

Abu Furat: Honestly, I am bothered.

Cameraman: Why?

Abu Furat: I am bothered because these tanks [that we destroyed] are our tanks. The ammo is our ammo. Those fighters are our brothers. I swear to God, every time I see a person that is killed, from…

]]>https://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2014/08/30/remembering-abu-furat/feed/0muqawamehThe Anti-Imperialism of Foolshttps://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2014/08/26/the-anti-imperialism-of-fools/
https://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2014/08/26/the-anti-imperialism-of-fools/#commentsTue, 26 Aug 2014 21:09:05 +0000http://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2014/08/26/the-anti-imperialism-of-fools/Palestinian Reflections: معاً ضد الديكتاتورية. Juntxs contra la dictadura. Together Against Dictatorship (Poster featuring Rokan a Kurdish PYD fighter from Aleppo) As we all witnessed yesterday Syria’s foreign minister Walid Muallem said that Syria will offer to help the US fight the Islamic State (IS) militant group. This of course has left the so called…]]>

As we all witnessed yesterday Syria’s foreign minister Walid Muallem said that Syria will offer to help the US fight the IslamicState (IS) militant group. This of course has left the so called Anti-war camp and “Anti-Imperialist” left in the U.S/West and even Arab assadists that support Assad either confused or silent on the matter. It’s important to note these are the same leftists or as some call them ‘tankies’ that support Russian imperialism and Iranian mini-imperialism in the Middle East and don’t even care whether Russia is a capitalist oligarchy or if Iran has communist political prisoners in its jails or killed because of their ideas this shows you how unprincipled they can be by becoming reactionary by supporting bourgeois nationalism and fascism. This article will focus on…

]]>https://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2014/08/26/the-anti-imperialism-of-fools/feed/1muqawamehThe Year of Reading (Arab) Womenhttps://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/the-year-of-reading-arab-women/
https://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/the-year-of-reading-arab-women/#respondWed, 25 Jun 2014 19:37:17 +0000http://muqawameh.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/the-year-of-reading-arab-women/Arabic Literature (in English): I feel rather lukewarm about this “Year of Reading Women,” despite an earnest belief that women’s books are (generally speaking) not taken as seriously as men’s: Joanna Walsh’s “year of reading women” bookmarks. Which women’s voices will this #readwomen2014 prioritize? Does it touch on any of the reasons…]]>

I feel rather lukewarm about this “Year of Reading Women,” despite an earnest belief that women’s books are (generally speaking) not taken as seriously as men’s:

Joanna Walsh’s “year of reading women” bookmarks.

Which women’s voices will this #readwomen2014 prioritize? Does it touch on any of the reasons why we gravitate toward male protagonists? Will it be, in the main, a celebration of English-language women’s voices? Of women at the center or the peripheries?

But despite my reservations, there’s a good enough chance that I’m wrong — in my lukewarmness — so if you’re keen to play along, this is a list of twelve suggestions of Arabic-writing women. Bonus points where the translator is also a woman. So here it is, one for every month of the year:

January: Hanan al-Shaykh, Story of Zahra, trans Peter Ford. You just cannot go wrong with Story of Zahra, which…